Andromeda was in another one of those boring meetings with her mother and the second-in-command, Corvus Leanthal. They were talking about the finishing touches on the Pytheas and Andromeda let her mind wander into her mind garden.

Similar to a mind palace, Andromeda was able to use the strategy of memory enhancement with detailed visualizations in order to allow for the recall of information. While she called it a mind garden, it was more what Andromeda supposed a garden would look like. All her memories and all the knowledge she had gained could be easily recalled here and she would often wander around when reality wasn't as interesting.

As Leanthal and her mother argued about the specific course they should take towards Dark Space, Andromeda wandered in her mind garden. She took her usual course to her favorite spot, the meeting tree.

The meeting tree was in the center of her mind garden and it was massive, she had built it in her mind similar to a banyan tree Dr. Mirlaj had shown her a picture of. It had deep roots connecting it with a few different trunks sprouting up and sharing leaves and branches as new memories were made. This tree held all the memories of her mother and father. Of all the people she loved.

As she approached the meeting tree she was startled to see another person in her mind garden. The woman turned around and widened her eyes. "Hello." She said

"Hello," Andromeda replied quickly then paused. The woman looked like her identical twin. Both had long blonde hair and a wispy body. The only difference was in what they were wearing.

Her twin wore a researcher's suit, a crisp white overlay top with a short collar and colered accents with plain white slacks. She looked like a common researcher aboard the Pytheas, with one difference, her accent color had every research group represented, blue for navigator, red for biology, green for medical, yellow for robotics. Hmm, I like that, Andromeda thought. Andromeda herself wore a simple white dress fitted at the waist and going down to her knees. No colors represented, Andromeda thought it would be too flashy.

"Why are you here?" Andromeda’s twin asked.

"This is my mind garden." Andromeda replied, "What are you doing here?"

"This is my mind garden." The woman responded, pausing for a moment to add, "I believe we have a problem."

"Yes, it appears we do." Andromeda said. The two women were silent for a moment both internally calculating what the odds were something like this could happen. Andromeda felt no fear. While having someone show up in your personal mind garden was certainly strange, she was used to strange things happening around her. "Are you me, then?" Andromeda asked her mind twin.

"Yes, I suppose I am." the woman said. "You must be me then also?"

"It would appear so." Andromeda said. They walked towards each other and stood staring at one another. "How are there two of us?"

"I think it has something to do with my mission." The woman said, "When the Pytheas entered Dark Space the stars shifted. I was able to trace the shift to where the star Rigel collapsed, and as I was investigating in my mind garden I found myself unable to get back."

"I haven't been to Dark Space yet." Andromeda started to worry.

"Oh." her twin replied.

"Yeah." Andromeda acknowledged uselessly.

"You need to get the Pytheas to Rigel's Collapse as quickly as possible and figure out what's going on. It's affecting us somehow, or rather, affecting me." She furrowed her brow. "I'm trying to go back, but I can't. I'm stuck here, in the mind garden."

Andromeda didn't like the sound of that, one of the things she loved about being aboard the Pytheas was the freedom. While her mind garden was a sanctuary of sorts, she didn’t like the idea of being stuck there, "Alright, I need to convince mother on a proper course to Rigel’s collapse. I don't want to worry mother, I know how deeply she cares for this mission."

"Of course,” the woman said, “she worries much too often. Tell her it is an optimal route with the highest chance for success and plot a course that will take us to the closest experiments on the way to the coordinates. She'll never check and Dr. Sturletto is too lazy to double check our work."

"Agreed." Andromeda turned to leave the mind garden and go back to reality, "Will you still be here when I get back?"

"I don't know.... I hope not." She said. They nodded to each other in acknowledgment and Andromeda pulled herself back to reality.

Her mother and Leanthal were right where she left them, poring over a digital map of the Chronos sector at her mother's desk. They had just left the orbit of the planet Chronos and were headed generally towards Dark Space. Once there they had last known coordinates of over one thousand different experiments, of which, they had been tasked with retrieving as many of them as they could.

"I've found the most efficient course." Andromeda interrupted them.

"Excuse me?" Her mother asked rhetorically, clearly upset she had been interrupted. "Glad to see you've finally decided to help us out here."

"Don't be too hard on her." Corvus Leanthal said, "What've you got Andromeda?"

Andromeda gave a weak smile and continued talking towards her shoes, "I've plotted a course that should take us near several important experiments and will take us into the heart of Dark Space. Once we make it to here," she pointed at Rigel's Collapse on their holo-map, "we can then determine what our next steps should be."

"Why should we go straight into the heart of Dark Space Andromeda? We don’t know what’s in there or why all our experiments are going missing," Corvus looked at her compassionately. "Wouldn't it be more prudent to stay on the outskirts of Dark Space and collect as many experiments as we can first?" Typically, Andromeda appreciated Corvus' caution, but right now she had to find a way to convince him this was the more prudent choice. If they skirted the edge of Dark Space Andromeda might have to share her mind garden with this other woman for a long time.

"If we remain in the outskirts we may never find the reason for why the experiments are going missing. We may not even find the experiments we've been tasked with collecting." She said with her most authoritative voice. "However, by going directly to the heart of the mystery we may be able to discover the reason for the missing experiments and solve the problem, thereby opening up a whole new sector for colonization. This course has the highest probability of success."

Her mother sat back in her seat and stared at her daughter for a moment. "Interesting conclusion." Andromeda could see the cogs turning in her mother's mind. "I have to practically beg you to be a part of this mission for months, and now suddenly you have a strong opinion on the matter." Her eyebrows raised and she pursed her thin lips.

"I have determined that since I am to be a part of this mission, regardless of what I want, then we should do it the right way." Andromeda tried to appear confident and stood tall.

"Corvus, please give us a moment." Her mother dismissed him with a simple wave of the hand and Corvus gave a small salute to her mother and left the office. When her mother was sure they were alone she got up from her desk and walked around it to stand directly in front of Andromeda. "Where were you just now?" her mother asked quietly.

"I don't understand the question, I was here the whole time." Andromeda whispered.

Her mother raised an eyebrow, "I know my daughter. You went somewhere, you don't have to tell me where if you don't want to. What I do need to know is if I should trust you. This route you propose is dangerous, we don't know what's out there in Dark Space.” Mother crossed her arms and tapped her fingers, “I agree with Commander Leanthal, we should stick to the outskirts and see if we can gather information."

"You need to follow the route I've selected." Andromeda looked her mother in the eye, a feat she had not done for some years. "Trust me." she begged.

Her mother's cool blue eyes stared hard at her and Andromeda dropped her gaze. "Alright, we'll try it your way. If I find that you have put the mission in unnecessary danger, you will find yourself limited aboard this ship in a way you have not yet known."

Andromeda had been told she looked just like her mother, but she refused to believe she carried the same hardness. Both of them may have the same long blonde hair, the same light blue eyes, the same hard lines on their face, but Andromeda liked to believe she had her father's heart. She liked to believe she shared his curiosity and his love for helping others. Then again, she liked to believe her mother had those same qualities at one point in her life too.

"I won't lie and say there is no danger, but I have reason to believe there is a greater danger if we don't get there sooner rather than later." Andromeda knew this was going to worry her mother, not because of the danger to the crew. It worried her because it could compromise her mission.

"I understand." Mother replied, more calmly than Andromeda expected. "That will be all, plot your course." The conversation done, Andromeda left.

As Andromeda returned to her small dark room she thought to herself, If I can't trust myself, who can I trust?

Keisha and Fiolas stood in front of the Excelsior. They had spent the last few weeks training and getting familiar with the ship. She was an old ship, but sturdy. Keisha loved being able to feel the way the ship responded to her controls. Some of the newer ships she had trained on were so smooth you couldn't be sure it was doing what you told it to.

The Excelsior was long and skinny, with a main hallway that connected the front to the back. It narrowed at the front and back but bulged in the middle where the majority of the cargo was held. It had a small cockpit with just barely room for the three of them to fit in sideways. Behind the cockpit were the communal areas, the small mess hall, an exercise room and bunks for when they were out of cryo-sleep.

The back of the ship held 500 colonists who were already in cryo-sleep. There was no room onboard to have that many people walking around, but when you stacked up sleeping people they took up considerably less space.

The three crewmates allowed to be awake during take-off and landing were only the Captain, Navigator Fiolas and Keisha herself. The ship would fly itself and only wake them when they got closer or if something happened.

According to the satellites they had monitoring the planet it was completely devoid of life besides the occasional small coniferous tree. The atmosphere was habitable so no terrariums would be needed for Klokos II which meant they were able to carry more colonists.

As they stood there getting their photo’s taken for posterity, Keisha reflected on their last few moments to say goodbye to family and loved ones.

Captain Alterra had numerous students and other captain's come and wish him luck. He had looked like a celebrity, getting his picture taken and writing last minute words of encouragement to the future generation of space cadets coming out of Klokos.

Keisha's parents had been so proud of her they had postponed their trip back to earth just to see her off. She could still see their faces, everyone said she looked just like her mother. Long straight black hair, brown eyes, small gymnast frame. The only real difference these days was her mother's hair was turning silver.

They had come to Klokos later in life and had Keisha here. Klokos was the only home Keisha knew of, her parents claimed to want her to have a better life than Earth could have provided. She would have to take their word for it if it truly had been better because they had never talked about it growing up. They had given up everything to get here and to have Keisha here.

As a last minute surprise, her mother handed her a toy ship they had given her as a child for good luck and her father gave her his favorite crystal blue six sided die . It was one of the most sentimental things her father had ever given her. She gave them her final hugs and now she stood here, posing for photos she would likely never see until they returned from their mission in several years.

They were finally released to get in the ship and Keisha and Fiolas began the sequence for take-off. Keisha placed her toy ship on the dash and secured it so it wouldn't go flying when they took off and felt to make sure the die was stashed in her front pocket.

"Is that a replica of the Chronos ship?" Fiolas asked.

"Yeah, my parents gave it to me as a kid. I used to tell them someday I was going to fly faster than light just like Adam Scofield." Keisha laughed. "I'm his biggest fan. The Chronos was a thing of beauty."

Fiolas smiled at her, "I might have to compete for that honor. I've read all his notes that have been made available for the public. I even wrote a paper hypothesizing where the Chronos ended up."

"Nice. I'll have to read it and tear it apart." Keisha teased back. "Did your parents give you anything for your trip? Mine are horribly superstitious so they each gave me a good luck charm."

Fiolas' face fell. "No. I didn't have anyone to say goodbye to." He went back to his work checking the different instruments on his console.

"Sorry, I didn't know." Keisha followed suit and went back to her work, although slower than she had been.

"It's alright." Fiolas said.

Captain Alterra squeezed his way to his captain's chair in the middle of their two sections before Fiolas could continue and strapped in. "Report in." He commanded.

"All systems, go." Fiolas reported.

"All systems, go." Keisha reported.

"Begin take-off sequence." Alterra commanded. The Excelsior left the atmosphere of Klokos smoothly and soon they were on their way to a new home.